The top baseball hot beds?

Not saying it's #1 but SF Bay Area belongs on that list.

The DR. 

Atlanta seems to be pretty hot in young talent right now!

Bay Area does belong on the list.  There are others that should be on the list. DR would be #1, but it is not in the country. No doubt, Atlanta area is a definite hotbed.

SoCal is at the top of that list.It's not just the talent here but the depth of the talent that sets this area apart from the rest.From Ventura County to the border and from the coast to Riverside County there are a lot of very good ball players.

The bigger argument would be which county San Diego,Orange,Los Angeles,Riverside,or Ventura is the biggest hotbed. The sheer size of L.A.County is the obvious choice, but the other four counties are loaded as well.

Here is how I would rank them and I admit I am a "homer" and biased ! Haha

1) San Diego County

2)Orange County

3)Los Angeles County

4)Riverside County

5)Ventura County

How about Phoenix and Seattle?

I have seen some kids lately coming from places I never heard of, credit probably to internet and club teams. There is more information out there and folks will drive a long ways to be seen.

Using MLB birth locations:

Over History:

California

California (deserves 2x)

Pennsylvania

New York

Illinois

Texas

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/

Lately (2014)

California

DR

Texas

Venezuela

Florida

http://www.baseball-almanac.co...irthplace.php?y=2014

Bracketing Florida -- which is one of the big three domestic baseball havens with California and Texas --  though no one state in the Southeast can match the big three in overall numbers -- it strikes me that maybe on a per capita basis the South Eastern states do pretty darned well. Our first trip out to the PG/WWBA 18U championship convinced me that those Southern guys can really play.  Our coach said that our only advantage over them is really numbers.   I suspect he may be right.

Your right, my bad...my Evelyn Wood speed reading method makes me jump over stuff. 

No doubt there's a warm-weather/cold-weather aspect as well, but I think this might come in handy.

we're in dallas. a scout told me once that more ball players from texas come from the houston area. i think overall that seems right.

Not even close Bobby:

1. LA county by far. (10M people)

2. Orange county. (only 3M people but probably the most dense as far as baseball talent I have seen anywhere in the country)

3. Riverside (2.2M)

4. San Diego (3M)

5. Ventura  (880K)

Frankly for the size of the county San Diego, while having a lot of talent as far as top programs and players is small IMO given it's size and southern location. (too many great beaches ?) 

I am sure these fluctuate from year to year. At least when my son went to the USA 16U championships two of the top 4 teams were from Ventura County. I think we lost to the SD Show, who was one of them, but that team was made up of 60% of kids from Orange and LA counties or elsewhere.

Orange County to me has to be one of the tops in the country. I do a lot of work in Houston and while there is great baseball here, it is not close to OC IMO. 

Population + warm climate= baseball hotbed.

BOF,

 I'm a complete "homer" guilty as charged ! Haha Of course I'll rank San Diego County ahead of everyone else in SoCal

I would agree  that Orange County is probably the most dense as baseball talent goes.For that reason maybe Orange County trumps even Los Angeles.

I agree with Bobby for OC, so you have to also add economic capacity. Families can also afford training and coaching in OC. 

If PGStaff jumps back in I would like to get his opinion as he is seeing players/teams from all over the country.

PG Staff,

Thanks for starting this thread. Out of curiosity, do you ever double-check the PG Rankings vis-a-vis who ends up in MLB? For example, if 25% of MLB players are from California, do you look at your Top 100 for a given year and say, "Hmm . . . we only have 10 of the Top 100 from California, I wonder if we're missing some?" Or something to that effect? Or it it all bottoms-up, just ranking players individually? Thanks

Hahahaha.

Lots of good talent from Tennessee as well.

Actually we have pretty much nailed the top 100 draft prospects every year. There is always a good number from the top baseball states.  But the top 100 can come from anywhere.  

Depending on what you are going by, the top area of the country would be different.

For example if we based it on first round picks over the past 5 or 6 years, the Atlanta area would be #1.  If we base it on the number of over all draft picks Southern California would be #1. Of course these things change over time.  

BTW, there are some areas in the north that produce a lot of talent.  Chicago, New York, St Louis, Kansas City, areas in Virginia, PA, Ohio, NJ, Tennessee and NC, etc. In fact, top talent is everywhere. It's just that some areas have a larger volume of talent.

I believe in recent years if you went by states it would look like this...

California

Florida

Texas

Georgia

Tie between many states

California is #1 nearly every year

That said, the first over all draft pick can come from anywhere.  Joey Mauer was from Minnesota, Justin Upton Virginia, Bryce Harper Nevada, Josh Hamilton North Carolina. Our #1 2016 prospect is from Kansas. This year's AL MVP is from New Jersey.

Yep for sure.

Population+ warm climate+ disposable income= baseball hotbed.

Dont forget Rick Porcello from NJ as well.

I am assuming that the info you gave was for HS players, can you do the same for college players?

Do the same areas turn out high college draft picks?

Thanks in advance!

A large percentage of those drafted out of college come from the top conferences.

Pac12, SEC, ACC, Big12, Big West, etc.  Once again many top programs exist in the same states that produce the best HS talent.  And a large portion of the best HS players from the northern states, end up at these colleges.

Without doing any research I would say the most draft picks out of college would come from California, Florida, Texas, same as high school. Maybe North Carolina next, just guessing.  Again this is referring to volume, the best can and have come from all over the country.

The Sacramento area probably deserves mention as a separate entity as well. 

And I referred to the SF Bay Area, which in baseball terms isn't fair.  It really should be the San Jose Bay Area, as so much of the BA talent is from San Jose an the Peninsula in general.

Great talent in the Carolinas as well.

I think there’s great baseball talent everywhere but that in some places the “pool” is larger and deeper. Look, no one comes down the chute having great baseball skills. No matter what one may believe about genetics, the only way to develop skills is to play the game, so where there’s more opportunities and more people to take advantage of them, of course there’ll be a higher number of individuals having well developed skills.

Seems to me that Virginia teams won Jupiter and Ft. Myers last October.  In fact, at Ft. Myers, the championship game was between two Virginia teams.

MLB players hailing from Virginia include:

Justin Verlander

Ryan Zimmerman

Mark Reynolds

Upton brothers

David Wright

Michael Cuddyer

Sean Marshall

Others of recent vintage that come readily to mind include Billy Wagner, Brandon Inge, a handful of pitchers who've been up and down from the minors plus guys like Bill Bray, Chris Ray, John Maine et al. who had solid careers that now seem to have ended. 

I don't know that we compete with FL, TX or CA in terms of numbers, but we have to at least be in the discussion.

I think the talent pool in many places in this country is large and deep -- especially where the weather and wealth conspire to permit kids to get top notch training and to experience top notch on field competition for much of the year.

But one thing that strikes me from years of watching/coaching  from my wealthy silicon valley perch is that many talented kids just don;t have that  truly burning, intense hunger to do anything and everything it takes to get to the next level. I'm not denying that some do -- the numbers of players from our area that go on is ample testament to that fact.  But so many of the kids here have so many options.  And they feel no need whatsoever to  "escape" anything at all.   You compare their level of drive and ambition, taken in aggregate,   for baseball with the drive and ambition of, say, kids from the Dominican for whom baseball is an absolute escape  or with the drive and ambition of inner city kids for whom basketball or football is the same and well, you just don't find that intense hunger in all that many kids here.  Not saying that as a criticism.  In a way it makes sense, given that they have so many, many options and possibilities open to them.  

But I do wonder how locale correlates with "hunger" and "drive."   Is there a difference in how driven and hungry the talented kids are, depending on where they live?  I know that baseball has become more of an middle class/upper middle class/rich kid thing than it was heretofore. And that's probably true just about everywhere in the good ole USA that could still be considered a baseball "hotbed."  But I do wonder if there are still places where American kids play baseball with the kind of hunger that you often find for a sport when you are talking kids from less privileged backgrounds who see the sport as a way up or out  (and not just as one cool thing among many cool things that they could possibly do). 

Without intending to tip my hand and reveal my “real” identity, I have very recently seen participation in youth to HS baseball in both Southern California and Atlanta/Cobb.  I’m happy to share my experiences in both places.

I do think it’s important to note what PGStaff is saying about First Rounders and by extension, roster spots on the highest-tier Division 1 schools.  That kind of talent is “freak” and is not bound by geography or program.  Give a quality coaching staff 80 players in an age-group and each player will show substantial improvement.  The team(s) may even become tournament winning machines, but it doesn’t mean the no.1 player is automatically the next Mike Trout or Jameis Winston.

Of the regions, there are two important distinctions that affect baseball.   The first is how High School baseball is structured and second it’s effect on the participation focus.

In Southern California, the High School team is the year around club team.  Once a 9^th grader makes the team, they will likely not see another coaching staff or dawn another uniform until they graduate.  The High School teams slip seamlessly from the Spring school season into a Summer league or tournament season.  A little time off, then back together for Fall and/or Winter games. 

At the edges (very gift players and marginal talents), there are a limited number of non-high school sponsored opportunities in SoCal, but the 9^th grade cut acts as a true line-in-the-sand of whether or not a kid keeps playing baseball.  That has a huge effect on kids & families moving from elementary school to middle-school.  There are 363 perfect annual weather days in Southern California and zero shortage of activities to engage in.  If a 12 year old has any wavering in baseball interest or his skillset is perceived as borderline as they finish the youth leagues, very, very little effort is needed to shift gears and start pursuing something new.

In GA, the High School coach can only engage their team in sport related activities in a very narrow calendar window.  This means club teams rule the landscape.  In the part of So. Cal where my son was growing up, rec ball; the dreaded Little League; still ruled youth ball (An aside:  He/We enjoyed every minute).  In GA, the bigger club teams run the full vertical of age groups; 18U down to 9U or younger.  This appears to mitigate the blow of not making the High School team as a freshman.  I perceive annually there is group of 14 / 15 year olds GA boys who don’t make their high school team, pick-up their pride, fold back into their club team and make another run at it as sophomores. 

All of which means:  In Atlanta/Cobb, Baseball appears to hold onto these kids longer than in SoCal.  The net effect is; 1) I perceive GA HS baseball teams to be deeper and 2) the High School seasons acts the defacto all-star tournament for the region.  By saying “deeper”, I mean the GA player no. 5 through 9 is probably stronger than their SoCal peer – the equivalent player in SoCal having long since hung up their bat and glove for a LAX stick or other activity.  

Unfortunately, I don’t think that would translate automatically into the win-loss record if teams from the regions played each other.  High School sports are ruled by No.1, 2 and 3 players on a team.   My one lefty flame thrown can probably beat your balanced team.   Which of course always makes me start to think my one lefty flame thrower is the next Clayton Kershaw.

Just a guess, but that San Clemente lefty just might be the next Clayton Kershaw!

Just for curiosity I counted the number of "active" players that have appeared at the MLB level based on which state they were born in. Baseball Almanac actually has that info.  I checked about 10 states (see below), but anyone can check any state they want at the Baseball Almanac site.

Here are the results from the states I checked...

California - 230 (WOW!)

Texas - 118

Florida - 110

Georgia - 51

Illinois - 37

New York - 32

North Carolina - 27

Virginia - 23

Arizona - 22

New Jersey - 21

Of course, this is just one way to look at things, but still kind of revealing IMO.

PG I think you nailed it at the top.  Having lived in Arkansas, New Orleans, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas I think I can speek to those areas.  Houston and Dallas are far superior to the others.  Houston has a slight edge over Dallas in Baseball.  I think partly because the best travel players in Houston mostly play for 1 or 2 teams.  In Dallas the travel teams are to watered down and organizations don't try to put their best players on the same team til 17 which to me hurts.  Dallas has the edge in Football.  In Texas football is king by far so you do end up with a lot of dual sport atheletes In Dallas and Houston which i think is good.

and then divide by population....

California - 6.0

Texas - 4.5

Florida - 5.8

Georgia - 5.1

Illinois - 2.8

New York - 1.7

North Carolina - 2.7

Virginia - 2.9

Arizona - 3.3

New Jersey - 2.3

(# of players per million of state's population)

Chiming in from Illinois.

While the participating teams from Illinois haven't won many, if any PG tournaments.

I do notice that many of them do well and the combination of their records are always well above .500.

And that's with less than optimum facilities and certainly very little outdoor time due to weather.

Speaking from the ATL/Cobb area....I could easily drive my child in under 15 minutes to well over 30 parks with up to ten 12u teams per park, and I hear it only gets worse as the kid grows older!  I'm thinking it wouldn't be such a huge industry here if there wasn't a hotbed of talent to support it.

Go44dad,

That makes sense! Wish I had the time to do every state that way.

Of course, I am more curious about areas within those states.  Atlanta and LA area seems to have a lot more excellent African American players compared to many other parts of the country. That alone helps the talent level quite a bit.

In Ohio, the hot bed of talent is in South west part (Cincinnati / Dayton). There is certainly very good talent in all of Ohio but from a depth point of view, my opinion is that area. As far as midwest (only part I can really speak from experience on). It would be Ohio / Illinios, then Indiana (around Indianapolis area in this state), PA, Kentucky (Louisville area is loaded), Michigan. Just one man's opinion from watching a bunch of baseball over the years

I agree with Midlo, i think per size of the state and weather that Virginia would have to be in top 5 discussion.  the Richmond and Virginia Beach area are both very good at playing some baseball. 

This is from a few years ago, but still holds up I think:  http://articles.latimes.com/20...er-producers-2010071

I remember being told that California (with about 12% of the USA's population) produces 25% of the American-born big leaguers, so this is pretty close.